I would like to wish all our readers a very Merry Xmas and a Happy Gardening New Year.
It is a very great pleasure to bring you gardening information each week and to hear about your successes and problems.
Your emails and phone calls contribute a lot to these columns and sometimes when stuck for a topic, one [...]
With the burgeoning interest of city dwellers in growing their own food, one of the key challenges to food gardeners has been resolved with a new release of the www.cityfoodgrowers.com organic gardening web site. At the click of mouse, gardeners from any location in Australia, USA and New Zealand can select by day, month or plant [...]
I’ve spent lots of time during May preparing my vege garden for winter. If you use an irrigation system, don’t forget to decrease the frequency or turn it off all together in preparation for the rainy months. I’ve tucked up all my plants with a good feed and a thick layer of mulch, and finally, [...]
What to plant in November
Beetroot
Basil
Carrot
Capsicum
Celery
Climbing beans
Coriander
Cucumber
Dill
Dwarf beans
Eggplant
Globe artichoke
Lettuce
Leeks
Parsnip
Pepper
Potato
Pumpkin
Radish
Rhubarb
Rocket
Rockmelon
Silverbeet
Spinach
Spring onion
Strawberry
Squash
Swede
Sweetcorn
Tomato
Turnip
Watermelon
Yams
Zucchini
Strawberry Protection
If the birds keep eating your strawberries here’s a handy way of protecting them. Get a mixing bowl and a strip of chicken wire. Mould the chicken wire around the outside of the mixing bowl. Separate the [...]
At this time in New Zealand things are not too bad as yet, so as we used to say, Make hay while the sun shines.
There are two aspects to growing your own food to be more self-sufficient, these are the short term and the long term. For instance on the short term you can [...]
Top Tips for Beginner Gardeners
There’s nothing worse than starting a vege patch all enthusiastic, putting the leg work in, then getting disappointing results. As spring is often the time when beginners decide to give it a go, I’ve put together a few top tips to help you on your way. If any of you have [...]
New season tomato plants are now becoming available from your garden centre and now is a good time to start off an early tomato plant or two.
The best advise is to plant out, or pot up, a couple of tomato plants every month for the next six or seven months. By doing this you [...]
…What to plant in July
Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Chinese Cabbage, Garlic, Peas, Radish,
Silverbeet, Perpetual Spinach, Turnips
Planting Potatoes
If you live north of or within Auckland, you can grow potatoes all year round. (If you are south of Auckland you will need to wait until the ground gets warmer – we’ll [...]
